Crude oil originates from the decomposition and transformation of aquatic, mainly marine, living organisms and/or land plants that became buried under successive layers of mud and silt some 15-500 million years ago. They are essentially very complex mixtures of many thousands of different hydrocarbons. Depending on the source, the oil predominantly contains various proportions of straight and branched-chain paraffins, cycloparaffins, and naphthenic, aromatic, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons can be gaseous, liquid, or solid under normal conditions of temperature and pressure, depending on the number and arrangement of carbon atoms in the molecules.
Crude oils vary widely in their physical and chemical properties from one geographical region to another and from field to field. Crude oils are usually classified into three groups according to the nature of the hydrocarbons they contain: paraffinic, naphthenic, asphaltic, and their mixtures. The differences are due to the different proportions of the various molecular types and sizes. One crude oil can contain mostly paraffins, another mostly naphthenes. Whether paraffinic or naphthenic, one can contain a large quantity of lighter hydrocarbons and be mobile or contain dissolved gases; another can consist mainly of heavier hydrocarbons and be highly viscous, with little or no dissolved gas. Crude oils can also include heteroatoms containing sulfur, nitrogen, nickel, vanadium and other elements in quantities that impact the refinery processing of the crude oil fractions. Light crude oils or condensates can contain sulfur in concentrations as low as 0.01 W %; in contrast, heavy crude oils can contain as much as 5-6 W %. Similarly, the nitrogen content of crude oils can range from 0.001-1.0 W %.
The nature of the crude oil governs, to a certain extent, the nature of the products that can be manufactured from it and their suitability for special applications. A naphthenic crude oil will be more suitable for the production of asphaltic bitumen, a paraffinic crude oil for wax. A naphthenic crude oil, and even more so an aromatic one, will yield lubricating oils with viscosities that are sensitive to temperature. However, with modern refining methods there is greater flexibility in the use of various crude oils to produce many desired type of products.
A crude oil assay is a traditional method of determining the nature of crude oils for benchmarking purposes. Crude oils are subjected to true boiling point (TBP) distillations and fractionations to provide different boiling point fractions. The crude oil distillations are carried out using the American Standard Testing Association (ASTM) Method D 2892. The common fractions and their nominal boiling points are given in Table 1.
TABLE 1FractionBoiling Point, ° C.Methane−161.5 Ethane−88.6Propane−42.1Butanes −6.0Light Naphtha36-90Mid Naphtha 90-160Heavy Naphtha160-205Light Gas Oil205-260Mid Gas Oil260-315Heavy Gas Oil315-370Light Vacuum Gas Oil370-430Mid Vacuum Gas Oil430-480Heavy Vacuum Gas oil480-565Vacuum Residue565+ 
The yields, composition, physical and indicative properties of these crude oil fractions, where applicable, are then determined during the crude assay work-up calculations. Typical compositional and property information obtained from a crude oil assay is given in Table 2.
TABLE 2PropertyUnitProperty TypeFractionYield Weight and Volume %W %YieldAllAPI Gravity°PhysicalAllViscosity Kinematic @ 38° C.°PhysicalFraction boiling >250° C.Refractive Index @ 20° C.UnitlessPhysicalFraction boiling <400° C.SulfurW %CompositionAllMercaptan Sulfur, W %W %CompositionFraction boiling <250° C.NickelppmwCompositionFraction boiling >400° C.NitrogenppmwCompositionAllFlash Point, COC° C.IndicativeAllCloud Point° C.IndicativeFraction boiling >250° C.Pour Point, (Upper)° C.IndicativeFraction boiling >250° C.Freezing Point° C.IndicativeFraction boiling >250° C.Microcarbon ResidueW %IndicativeFraction boiling >300° C.Smoke Point, mmmmIndicativeFraction boiling between150-250Octane NumberUnitlessIndicativeFraction boiling <250° C.Cetane IndexUnitlessIndicativeFraction boiling between150-400Aniline Point° C.IndicativeFraction boiling <520° C.
Due to the number of distillation cuts and the number of analyses involved, the crude oil assay work-up is both costly and time consuming.
In a typical refinery, crude oil is first fractionated in the atmospheric distillation column to separate sour gas and light hydrocarbons, including methane, ethane, propane, butanes and hydrogen sulfide, naphtha (36°−180° C.), kerosene (180°−240° C.), gas oil (240°−370° C.) and atmospheric residue (>370° C.). The atmospheric residue from the atmospheric distillation column is either used as fuel oil or sent to a vacuum distillation unit, depending on the configuration of the refinery. The principal products obtained from vacuum distillation are vacuum gas oil, comprising hydrocarbons boiling in the range 370°−520° C., and vacuum residue, comprising hydrocarbons boiling above 520° C. The crude assay data help refiners to understand the general composition of the crude oil fractions and properties so that the fractions can be processed most efficiently and effectively in an appropriate refining unit. Indicative properties are used to determine the engine/fuel performance or usability or flow characteristic or composition. A summary of the indicative properties and their determination methods with description are given below.
The cetane number of diesel fuel oil, determined by the ASTM D613 method, provides a measure of the ignition quality of diesel fuel; as determined in a standard single cylinder test engine; which measures ignition delay compared to primary reference fuels. The higher the cetane number; the easier the high-speed; direct-injection engine will start; and the less white smoking and diesel knock after start-up. The cetane number of a diesel fuel oil is determined by comparing its combustion characteristics in a test engine with those for blends of reference fuels of known cetane number under standard operating conditions. This is accomplished using the bracketing hand wheel procedure which varies the compression ratio (hand wheel reading) for the sample and each of the two bracketing reference fuels to obtain a specific ignition delay, thus permitting interpolation of cetane number in terms of hand wheel reading.
The octane number, determined by the ASTM D2699 or D2700 methods, is a measure of a fuel's ability to prevent detonation in a spark ignition engine. Measured in a standard single-cylinder; variable-compression-ratio engine by comparison with primary reference fuels. Under mild conditions, the engine measures research octane number (RON), while under severe conditions, the engine measures motor octane number (MON). Where the law requires posting of octane numbers on dispensing pumps, the antiknock index (AKI) is used. This is the arithmetic average of RON and MON, (R+M)/2. It approximates the road octane number, which is a measure of how an average car responds to the fuel.
The cloud point, determined by the ASTM D2500 method, is the temperature at which a cloud of wax crystals appears when a lubricant or distillate fuel is cooled under standard conditions. Cloud point indicates the tendency of the material to plug filters or small orifices under cold weather conditions. The specimen is cooled at a specified rate and examined periodically. The temperature at which cloud is first observed at the bottom of the test jar is recorded as the cloud point. This test method covers only petroleum products and biodiesel fuels that are transparent in 40 mm thick layers, and with a cloud point below 49° C.
The pour point of petroleum products, determined by the ASTM D97 method, is an indicator of the ability of oil or distillate fuel to flow at cold operating temperatures. It is the lowest temperature at which the fluid will flow when cooled under prescribed conditions. After preliminary heating, the sample is cooled at a specified rate and examined at intervals of 3° C. for flow characteristics. The lowest temperature at which movement of the specimen is observed is recorded as the pour point.
The aniline point, determined by the ASTM D611 method, is the lowest temperature at which equal volumes of aniline and hydrocarbon fuel or lubricant base stock are completely miscible. A measure of the aromatic content of a hydrocarbon blend is used to predict the solvency of a base stock or the cetane number of a distillate fuel. Specified volumes of aniline and sample, or aniline and sample plus n-heptane, are placed in a tube and mixed mechanically. The mixture is heated at a controlled rate until the two phases become miscible. The mixture is then cooled at a controlled rate and the temperature at which two separate phases are again formed is recorded as the aniline point or mixed aniline point.
To determine these properties of gas oil or naphtha fractions conventionally, these fractions have to be distilled from the crude oil and then measured/identified using various analytical methods that are laborious, costly and time-consuming.
High pressure liquid chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a technique that can separate a mixture of compounds into individual analytes or into a group of analytes, depending on the complexity of the sample. HPLC serves various analytical applications including identification, quantification and/or purification of an individual component or a group of components having similar properties.
Any new rapid, direct method to help better understand the crude oil composition and properties from the analysis of whole crude oil will save producers, marketers, refiners and/or other crude oil users substantial expense, effort and time. Therefore, a need exists for an improved system and method for determining the properties of crude oil fractions from different sources and classifying the crude oil fractions based on their boiling point characteristics and/or properties.